Various emerging smart lighting control systems have a feature that allows users to view a “map” of light fixtures. This map component requires known location points to represent each light fixture. Typically there are two approaches for obtaining location points for a map of fixtures: inclusion of a Global Positioning System (GPS) module in the fixtures or manually plotting a map with the locations of the fixtures “by hand”. Applicant has appreciated that adding a GPS module to the light fixtures is not cost-effective since the fixture locations are static and only need to be recorded once. Moreover, applicant has appreciated that manually plotting a map with the fixture locations “by hand” still requires coordinates or at least approximations based on topography (for example, setting the map marker of “Pole A” on the northeast corner of a parking lot). Furthermore, mapping by hand is labor intensive and not scalable for a large number of fixtures. These two methods add extra cost and man-hours to the commissioning process of a light fixture in a smart system with a fixture-map application.
Another technique for creating a map of fixtures is to use a peripheral device with GPS capabilities. In this method, an individual arrives at a fixture location, records the GPS coordinates using the peripheral device, and then uses the recorded coordinates for mapping the light fixtures. There are many variations of this tactic. One specific example has a GPS device that scans data from a barcode on the light fixture (such as the fixture's unique ID). This way the map displays the coordinates of the scanned barcode data. Like the previous two implementations, applicant has come to appreciate that this barcode approach has some limitations. One drawback is the possibility of a label or barcode being incorrectly applied to a light fixture, thus providing a false representation of a fixture's location (for example, the labels for Pole A and Pole B were switched so after scanning, the map shows Pole A at Pole B's location and Pole B at Pole A's location). Another problem is that the barcode labels are subject to the environment. Labels may become separated from the fixture or fade from exposure to sunlight or liquid (i.e. rain or snow) and cause the barcode to become unreadable.